MOBILE, Alabama – Sugar Rush Donut Co., which began in Bayou La Batre in 2011, announced on Facebook today (March 13) that a second Mobile location would open by June 1 in the Loop area.

It’s a blessing and a curse for Midtown residents, who both rejoiced at the news and joked on Facebook about having to run to the donut shop to burn off the calories they’d consume there.

The Bayou La Batre bakery began when Marcellus Bosarge’s work as a riverboat captain slowed down. Despite having a degree in chemical engineering, the mother of his children, Mya, was also having trouble finding a job.

Bosarge had grown up in the kitchen, learning to bake from his grandmother and his father. "A lot of it is self-taught," he said.

And so they, along with his three sons, brother, other family members and close friends, opened the first Sugar Rush in a tiny storefront on South Wintzell Avenue in Bayou La Batre. Before long, word spread about the made-from-scratch doughnuts and bubble tea.

“I’m related to 90 percent of the population down there,” Bosarge said, laughing. The bakery, which in Bayou La Batre also serves sandwiches at lunchtime, is popular with the shipyard crowd, he said.

Sugar Rush started attracting customers from Mobile who were driving some 30 miles south to Bayou La Batre for a doughnut fix, so Bosarge and family opened a second location last July at 4701 Airport Blvd., Suite 250, in a shopping center just west of University Boulevard.

Business there “has blown up,” Bosarge said. “It’s absolutely crazy.”

The bakery is still a family business, and “some of the family gets here at 12:30 or 1 a.m.” to start making the sugary confections for the shop, which opens at 6 a.m. “We work 12-hour days, six days a week,” Bosarge said.

He noticed that many of his customers were driving to west Mobile from Midtown and downtown areas, so he started scouting locations for a second Mobile bakery.

By June 1, but sooner if possible, Bosarge will open Sugar Rush Midtown at 2033-A Airport Blvd., in the former Taste Wine Bar location across from Mellow Mushroom.

“I’m going to try it out,” said Bosarge, who has signed a month-to-month lease at the new location.

Already today, he’s received several calls from customers asking if he’s going to close the west Mobile location. “I am not closing this store,” he said emphatically.

In addition, the original Bayou La Batre bakery is moving to a space that’s “three times bigger,” with a full dining area, by the end of March. The new location will be at 13240 N. Wintzell Ave.